Editorial Reviews

Gaming EnthusiastThere’s no better game if you want to take a breather from more serious and complex titles and simply to have a great time. Definitely a gem in the comedic genre.See the full review

Jay Is GamesWhat's great is that Lost Pig is on the lighter side. I found myself laughing most of the time while I gleefully wandered around. Grunk narrates the game in caveman-like diction, but this element never became annoying to me. It really serves to absorb you into the amiable character. The game isn't very long but offers up a relatively good challenge, particularly if you are unfamiliar with the genre.See the full review

Play This Thing!It's got neat puzzles, it's got a good sense of humor, and it's insanely responsive. All kinds of odd, esoteric, or silly actions are catered for, and that keeps the game entertaining even when you're temporarily stuck for a solution.See the full review

Onion A. V. ClubWhile the game is short, and a few of the puzzles rely on conveniently magical explanations, Lost Pig makes a hilarious case for why text still matters.See the full review

PC GamerGrunk an orc, and not good at description; detailed expository introspections on combining inherently ludic nature of interactive fiction and unconventional prose style not Grunk’s thing. But Grunk’s story funny.See the full review

PopMattersBy far, the most fascinating part of the game is to see these two characters interact, Grunk and the gnome. Grunk’s limited intelligence is pitted against Gnome’s infinite patience. The game will give you random suggestions on what you can ask, and these suggestions never seem to run out. I spent over an hour ignoring the rest of the game just to talk to this gnome.See the full review

Wyrmis.comWell crafted, not too long, requires pleasantly clever choices, and written strongly through to the end. Excellent IF title. Going up there as one of my favorites.See the full review

Most Helpful Member Reviews

It was very fun and exciting and I liked the characters, especially Grunk. I liked the part with the bread machine. I also liked that whatever you ordered Grunk to do he did, including burping. I also liked that one thing led to another and you had to do things in order to solve the game.

I enjoyed how the game felt realistic, like it really was happening. The gnome dude was really cool and nice. It's not like you can talk to a gnome every day! I also enjoyed the fact that you had to be precise on your commands. I thought it was cool that you had to say exact directions... not like right,and left. More of N,NW,NS,E,SW,SE,S,AND WEST. It was an awesome game. I hope there are other games with Grunk included!!!!!!

I can't really add much to what has been said about this game already, except to say that I simply found it virtually perfect. The writing is absolutely beautiful, consistently funny, and often surprisingly moving. That is partly because Grunk, as a character, has such integrity and believability. Although presented as incredibly dense, the way he describes locations and objects, often incorporating quite shrewd observations along the way, suggests that he's not all that stupid at all. That gives him depth and emotional resonance. It must be said also that by having Grunk narrate the game in its entirety offers a neat approach to the problem of who the parser is supposed to be, and whether the narrator of the game is a different person from the PC. This game solves that problem by identifying the PC with the narrator, although at the cost of distancing the player from the PC (if Grunk is telling me what's going on, I'm clearly not Grunk, just in case I'd had any uncertainty on that score). There's no emotional distancing though, because Grunk is so engaging a personality.

The puzzles are nicely logical and the gnome NPC has a dry, educated wit that meshes perfectly with Grunk's rather more straightforward approach to life. There are a truly vast number of things you can ASK GNOME ABOUT, most of which have no bearing on the game itself, although some of course contain vital clues. It's a lot of fun to explore these topics, although this can result in the gnome seeming a bit like one of those information-dispenser sort of NPCs who are inexplicably willing to be grilled at length by over-curious PCs. But the gnome's sardonic wit and the fact that he's busily doing other things whilst satisfying Grunk's curiosity make him much more than a talking pedia.

The pig also has a lot of character, making this whole thing rather like one of those children's books that adults can also enjoy. I liked the author's attention to detail, which often brought out extra little elements of the characters (e.g. try taking your trousers off in front of the pig). I must admit that having apparently completed the game I was puzzled by how to gain the elusive last point and looked it up fully in the hints. I rather wished I hadn't, not only as it would have been more fun to work out by myself, but also because the behaviour required to get the last point is the sort of behaviour that I instinctively engage in when playing this sort of game anyway, but generally don't bother, because it seems not to matter. The fact that it mattered in this game says a great deal about it. This is a game with heart.

Aw, this is brilliant! Excellent attention to detail, and an awful lot of fun. It's well worth playing around and trying silly things that have no chance of advancing the game, just because the responses are so funny (e.g. try taking your pants off in company). Besides that, the implementation's solid, the puzzles make sense, Grunk and the pig both have a lot of character, and the ending is quite uplifting.

If you enjoyed Lost Pig...

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